Category: Our Homeschool

So tomorrow ends our first official week of homeschooling. While nothing has really changed, this has been a big emotional shift for me, and a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I’ve learned some important lessons about my son and about myself and about what is best for our family.
First, I’ve learned that boxed curriculum is not best for our family. Not even one component of a boxed curriculum such as the “Sing, Spell, Read and Write” program. It’s just not a good fit for H1. We’ll use parts of it – the music and maybe some of the games. But I don’t think we’re going to go through the lessons. It just doesn’t feel “authentic,” and he’s learning so much from life, that I’m going to let it go.

What this week has really been is a lesson in trusting myself. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hype and feel like I’m supposed to do this or that – have a curriculum, teach him phonics, have a strict school time every day, etc., etc. I have to keep reminding myself why we’ve chosen to homeschool and what I know about how kids learn. I believe in embedded learning opportunities and teachable moments. I believe in the world as a classroom. I believe it is okay if a kid isn’t reading at age 5.

I was talking with a fellow homeschooling mom today and she mentioned she was doing Five in a Row. This is a story book based curriculum. You read the same story for five days in a row and each day it provides an activity from a different subject area. I’ve looked into the curriculum before and it seems lovely. It feels warm. It feels real. It feels low pressure. I had dismissed it as too simple, but really, isn’t there beauty in simplicity? It feels better to have a spring board into other activities and interests than to feel locked into a boring curriculum that is frustrating and really just a way to pass the time.

It’s hard for me to explain, because it’s mostly just a feeling I have, but when I imagine days spent learning with my children, the images that make me smile are curling up on the couch with a book, or reading in the grass outside, or wandering through the wilderness together marveling at nature. Going through workbooks, playing phonics games, sitting at a table doing drill of any kind just doesn’t evoke warm fuzzies from me. I know it does for some people. I know some people are really turned on by a fresh workbook. And honestly, if I was teaching a different kid, I might be too. But I know that I cannot homeschool if every day is going to be a fight. If learning is going to be a fight, I’d rather my kid go fight with someone else and save the warm fuzzies for me.

So, at least for now, while they’re still so young, I’m scrapping the formal lessons in favor of some fun and trusting that the learning will continue to come as it has. I will keep listening for God’s whisperings in my heart as I raise the children he has entrusted to my care, and I will try to remember to ask for the graces of matrimony that are promised to us as we raise these children.

Well, not back exactly. Depending on how you look at it, we’re either just beginning or we’re just continuing on the same path we’ve been on. But a few things have changed.

This week, all across America, H1’s age mates are heading off to kindergarten. So, I guess we’ve “officially” begun our homeschool journey. I’ve created a daily and weekly schedule for the family. It includes some “kid school” time among many of the activities we already participate in.

Our daily routine includes a trip to a local park. Today the park was full of other kindergarteners burning off steam after their first day of school. Which is how I came to have what I am sure is only the beginning of a long line of annoying conversations. It went like this:

Nice dad in the park: So how old is your son?
Me: He’s 5.
NDIP: So he’s in kindergarten?
Me: Yep
NDIP: So is my daughter. She goes to [local highly rated elementary school]. Where does your son go?
Me: We homeschool.
NDIP: Oh. Do you do that on your own or as part of a group?

At this point I explain the once a week homeschool enrichment program that H1 attends.

NDIP: Oh. We thought about homeschooling, but we wanted her to be around kids her own age.
Me, inwardly rolling my eyes: Well, that’s one of the nice things about this program.

Now, I could have said any number of things: “Really? Why?” or “Hmmm. We don’t really want our son to have friends.” or “I plan to intentionally keep my kid from all kids his age. In fact, crap! We should leave the park right now as this place is crawling with kindergardeners.”

Now, I don’t believe this man had any malicious intent or realized that what he said could have been offensive. Now that I’ve had time to process it, I think the main problem here is that the topic of homeschooling is a small talk killer. Though homeschooling is becoming more and more common, it still one of those things that people don’t quite know how to respond to. But really, at least in the context of meeting a stranger in the park, it’s not that big a deal. It’s just what we do. And it’s not a commentary on your family and the choices you’ve made. I don’t care. Really. I fully believe that each family has the right and the capability to make good decisions for itself. You don’t have to defend your choices to me.

Also, schooling is so prevalaent and so mainstream that, when it comes to school-age kids, we don’t know what else to talk about. So maybe I need to come up with a way to quickly redirect the conversation to a non-school, “how’s-the-weather” sort of topic. Maybe, “do you live in the neighborhood? Isn’t it great to be so near such a beautiful park?”

As for the rest of our day, I think it went pretty well. School around here is pretty loose. I’ve only scheduled in 2 or 3 short lessons a day. We have dedicated time for Reading, Math and Spanish. Everything else is well covered by our daily living. For example, while we have no “science time,” in the past week we’ve learned how to identify a swallow, discovered volcanic rock in our back yard, learned all about how sound waves travel through the air and into our ear where they vibrate the ear drum and the cochlea turns them into electrical impulses which the brain interprets as sound. And more. Really, when it comes to science, I’m learning more from him than I’m teaching him!

Our very first intro to kid school was today’s phonics lesson. He resisted, but once we got started he enjoyed it and it was quick and painless. He then insisted on listening to the phonics song over and over and over and over again. After kid school we headed out to the museum of nature and science. While H2 napped we did a Spanish lesson. Again, he resisted, but didn’t want to stop once we started. He seems to be wary of anything that may have expectations of him attached to it. So, for now, kid school is optional to him. I’m going to do the lesson no matter what, and he can choose whether to participate. So far that strategy has worked well with him.

Tomorrow he’ll go to his first full-day of his enrichment program. I’ll admit I’m nervous. Orientation was less than wonderful for us. Hopefully he’ll hang in there a bit better tomorrow. We shall see.

I was captivated by the “Instant Friends Kit” in the June/July issue of Disney’s Family Fun magazine.

I was bored this afternoon and wanted to do something outside with the kids. I happened to have a handful of googly eyes on hand, so we made our own! Cute critters, don’t you think?

I guess I’m officially a homeschooler. I’ve always considered myself a homeschooler, but now that my son is officially of kindergarten age, it feels more official. People are going to start noticing he’s not in school, even though he “should be.”

We are enrolled in a homeschool enrichment program through the local school district. It’s a neat program that meets one day a week and offers some of those enrichment activities that can be difficult or inconvenient to offer at home (group games in gym class, big messy art projects, dissection, etc.). It also offers a great community of homeschooling families for friendship and support. I’m really looking forward to it.

One of the really great benefits of the program is access to free curriculum, and I just got our supplies today. If I were to buy everything I just got for free, I’d have to spend over $600. So this is a really great perk. Each family is allowed to check out one product per subject per child/grade.

So what’s in our package?

Sing, Spell, Read and Write
This looks like a really fun way to learn to read. It came with a ton of little readers and kids keep track of their progress by moving a little race car around a race track. I think DS will find this motivating. I’m excited about the music CD (he’s a very auditory learner) and the games. We got it out and looked at it today and he’s excited about it being special time with mommy while little sister naps.

Math-U-See
I don’t know much about this except that the mom I talked to at the curriculum affair kept going on and on and about how clearly and easily it teaches basic math concepts. She had been using the Saxon program and then switched to Math-U-See and couldn’t believe how well everything clicked for her kids after that. I like that it’s hands on.

Power Glide Children’s Spanish
This teaches Spanish through an action and adventure story. It’s a very auditory program and I think DS is going to love it.

Artistic Pursuits
I actually wasn’t sure about getting an art curriculum, but since it was free, I figured it didn’t hurt to check it out. I liked this one because it comes with prints of famous pieces and teaches art appreciation and isn’t just a “how to draw” course. I figured even if DS hates it, I might learn something from it.

I didn’t get a social studies or science curriculum because, frankly, what was available was totally lame. We do a lot of science through our homeschool preschool co-op and, when I looked at the available text books, I realized that what we’ve been doing is at at least a 3rd grade level. So we’re good there! As for social studies, I feel like DS is getting plenty of that through just our natural living – particularly what is considered kindergarten-level social studies.

I should mention here that I’ve been really hesitant about using curriculum at all. I certainly don’t think it’s necessary. But if we can keep it fun, I think it’s a great way to provide some structure to our days and offer activities that DS and I can do together that we (hopefully) will both enjoy. DS seems excited about the idea of learning to read and write and do math. So I’m excited too!